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September 14, 1999 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It sounds violent because it is: U.S. Army Rangers are highly trained killing machines.<\/p>\n
From the Revolutionary War to Somalia, Rangers have contributed their unique combat skills to virtually every major military operation in U.S. history \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and even more “minor” ones that the general public never hears about.<\/p>\n
They usually go in first. They surprise. They kill. They destroy. They disappear.<\/p>\n
“We’re the monsters under your bed at night,” whispered my guide, Private Patrick E. Heffernan, with a shifty smile as we walked through Bravo Company’s morning patrol base deep in the Chattahoochee National Forest near Camp Frank D. Merrill in Dahlonega, Ga.<\/p>\n
For the soldiers of Bravo Company, this was Day 16 of the 21-day Mountain Phase of Army Ranger School, and Day 37 overall of the punishing 61-day course.<\/p>\n
0923 hours, planning begins for nighttime raid: When I asked Ranger student David White how many days he had been in the woods, he had to take a moment to think … and even then he wasn’t sure. So I asked him about something that was on the minds of all the students \u00e2\u20ac\u201d sleep.<\/p>\n
“I got two hours last night,” said White, 20, of Vine Grove, Ky., as he colored his face with his camo stick. “The night before that? I don’t remember.”<\/p>\n
This was, in fact, White’s third day in the woods. But forgive him for seeming a bit confused. The previous five weeks had been a jumble of guns, sweat and trees \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and the two hours of sleep he got the night before were likely the most he’d had in days.<\/p>\n
For White, the three weeks of intense combat training and physical endurance tests at Fort Benning in Columbus are ancient history. The strenuous week of mountaineering exercises on Mount Yonah, just north of Cleveland, Ga., a foggy memory.<\/p>\n
All that is on White’s mind is today’s mission: to raid an enemy logistics base at 2000 hours.<\/p>\n
1025, food and ammunition resupply: While the rest of the platoon continued the long, meticulous planning process, a dozen or so students, machine guns in ready position, hiked to a nearby clearing where the helicopter drop took place.<\/p>\n
Small groups like this are most vulnerable to enemy attack. And the enemy is always out there, somewhere, tracking the students. Called the opposition force, or OPFOR, and comprised of Army soldiers based at Camp Merrill, they can strike at any time.<\/p>\n
“Watch out for the Rangers,” Captain Mark Landes, a Ranger Instructor, warned me and Heffernan as we milled about outside the patrol base. “They’ll shoot you up in a heartbeat. OPFOR’s been in here so many times, I’ve found they tend to get trigger happy.”<\/p>\n
The students’ guns shoot blanks, by the way. But they sound real. And that’s enough to give you a heart attack.<\/p>\n
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1130, meal ready to eat (MRE): MREs have a distinct odor and I wouldn’t necessarily classify it as a pleasant one. But if you’re relying on just two MREs a day as your only source of nourishment for the better part of two months, you’ll take what you can get.<\/p>\n
“I’ll tell you what,” said Ranger student Jonathan Gilliam, a Navy SEAL from Arkansas. “After a while you start craving those MRE crackers. But it’s going to be really nice to go to the Outback and have a steak after this is over.”<\/p>\n
I have to admit my MRE, pasta with vegetables in tomato sauce, wasn’t too bad \u00e2\u20ac\u201d certainly as palatable as anything that comes out of my bachelor kitchen.<\/p>\n
1347, leave for objective rally point (ORP): One by one, the Ranger students vacated the patrol base and began the two-kilometer trek to the ORP, the last place they would stop before their mission. Their pace was deliberate, each careful step a mission in itself.<\/p>\n
1539, final preparations begin: Shortly after a water resupply at a nearby creek we arrived at the ORP and the students immediately settled into their patrol-base positions. The enemy was just 300 meters away.<\/p>\n
Small reconnaissance teams were sent out to scout the enemy and pinpoint their location. From these reports, the Rangers will finalize their plans. This intricate process takes hours.<\/p>\n
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1727, the “drone monsters” take over: “Partner, partner,” whispered Ranger student Peter Warner. “Wake up.”<\/p>\n
“Oh man,” sighed Matt James \u00e2\u20ac\u201d barely able to open his eyes \u00e2\u20ac\u201d from behind his machine gun. James, 24, a Ranger student from Seattle, tried to do some pushups to get his blood flowing. It didn’t work.<\/p>\n
“Open your eyes,” insisted Warner, 23, from Long Island, N.Y. “Next time you close your eyes, you’ve got to stand up. You’ve got to stay awake.”<\/p>\n
This is called droning. It haunts the severely sleep-deprived Rangers constantly.<\/p>\n
Pushups are one way to get the drone monsters off your back. Chewing tobacco is another. Some desperate droners have been known to take the Tabasco sauce from their MREs and drop it into their eyes.<\/p>\n
1845, students head to objective: Slowly, silently, the support-by-fire element moved into position and set aim on the objective. A line of them bellied up behind their machine guns on a ridge overlooking the enemy base. Later, I moved with the ground assault team as it took position on the left flank.<\/p>\n
“I guess there’s some butterflies,” said Ranger student Josh Jones, 23, of Lake Tahoe, Calif., gripping his M-60 tightly. “You just get excited to finally get some action. It’s a lot of sitting around, but then you get your two minutes of fury.”<\/p>\n
2000, strike on enemy base: It was peculiarly peaceful lying there as night fell upon the forest.<\/p>\n
Then suddenly I was in the middle of a war. I knew it was coming and when it was coming and where it was coming from, but when the support element opened fire on the enemy my heart began to beat like a machine gun.<\/p>\n
I followed the assault Rangers as they made their approach, sliding behind trees and rattling off rounds before advancing farther.<\/p>\n
I didn’t spot the enemy until I nearly stepped on one. There were three of them lying lifeless (sort of) on the ground. The Rangers methodically ransacked the base, destroying all communications equipment and gathering together everything else for detonation. Then they scurried back into the woods.<\/p>\n
Surprise. Kill. Destroy. Disappear. Mission accomplished in less than 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
From there the Ranger students strapped on night vision goggles and set out on a four-hour trek to their next patrol base. Watching out for OPFOR, fighting off the drone monsters, they waited there silently for the next day’s mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
September 14, 1999 \u00e2\u20ac\u201d It sounds violent because it is: U.S. Army Rangers are highly trained killing machines. From the Revolutionary War to Somalia, Rangers have contributed their unique combat skills to virtually every major military operation in U.S. history \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and even more “minor” ones that the general public …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":372,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions\/372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/sportinglife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}